I spoke to a buddy of mine today. He is a Republican, or at the very least an unhappy minarchist who sees nothing but ugly in a potential Obama Administration and all things democratic. I remember the word socialist coming up several times. There was talk of the Financial mess being the fault of “that fag Barney Frank” and Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel…he named a few others. I had to remind him that it wasn’t just them, and that there are these guys, these “Blue dogs” or Dino’s(Democrats in name only) who have helped put the Republican agenda through the House. He wasn’t hearing it. I spoke about it being everyone’s fault, this financial mess, and that there’s plenty of blame to go around. He said the republicans are small government and it’s the dems who are the ones fucking things up (I’m not being precise with this conversation, either the order of it or the precise tenor, but the general tone is what i am trying to set here)

I feel a need to answer in the more calm tones that time and thought provide. Point One. Democrats are not socialists, any more than Republican’s are fascists. There is good and bad on both sides of the aisle and calling someone a name doesn’t make them the thing they are called to anyone but those that already think like that. The policies of democrats are not socialist in nature, any more than those that the republicans espouse. Is John McCain’s plan to help with mortgages any more socialist than Obama’s Tax plans? I defy you to prove that to me.

The Financial mess itself is the patient reward we get for years of planning and work on both sides of the aisle over a long period of time. It’s most culpable proponents? George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson. Republican’s all. Are there democrats to blame as well? Damn right! Bill Clinton had a hand in this, and if you take a look at the congress over the last 20 years you will see equal culpability in both parties, doing their damnedest to make their rich corporate friends rich and trying to cut themselves a slice of the pie. Pelosi, Reid, Rangel are just as important here as Shays, Boehner and Ryan.

Both sides of the Aisle are sick with greed and it’s making the entire nation, and indeed planet, ill.

Republicans are not small government. No party is small government….well maybe the libertarians, who have been entirely hijacked by the conservative right. There seems to be no room for a left libertarian like me in that party. But they, like all other third parties, are simply not viable on a national level. Haven’t been for as long as I’ve been around. I would not mind a strong third and even fourth and fifth party in American government.

Republicans raise taxes just like democrats. Look at the statistics. It’s all campaign rhetoric. AKA Bullshit. You pay taxes when there is a republican in the oval office just like you do when a democrat is in the oval office. A difference of a few percent is what they sell you on. Republican’s charge a penny less, and pass that cost onto future generations. Dems charge a penny more, and make you pay up front. That is the real difference between parties, tax wise.

A Video and I am done. As a matter of Fact for the first time ever I am putting in a video here that I have yet to watch myself completely. I am watching it as I post this. From C-Span, a Third Party Press conference, featuring Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia McKinney. Enjoy:

That’s it for me. Later!

Today’s Nuggets: Both of our political parties, at least the honest portion of them, agree conscientiously in the same object: the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers, the other by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove. Thomas Jefferson

The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake. H.L. Mencken